The Golden Mango
by Bright Silver Lady of Midnight
Summary: The tale of Connor and Travis's most famous prank, doubled with the reaction from the goddess they copped their idea from. Written for round two of Power of Words12's contest.


This is a story written for the second round of PowerofWords12's Percy Jackson and the Olympians contest. The idea was to pick a minor character or minor god(dess) and write a story about them. I'm doing the Stoll brothers and Eris.

_---_

It was an ordinary Summer day at Camp Half-Blood. Campers were at their various classes, and the sun was ascending into the middle of the sky. When it did, two Hermes campers' eyes met across the lake. The light from above shone onto the water and cast its rippling reflection onto the faces of smiling campers and the water nymphs that were watching the swimming class. One jerked his head backwards and the other nodded. In such a big cabin, it was easy for the two of them to slip away without being noticed.

They walked quickly and quietly, hiding behind something if someone came down the path they were walking. Every time they looked at each other, they cracked up, so they stopped. They didn't have time for laughing fits; that was reserved for afterwards. Connor went into the store first. There would only be one clerk at this time of day, and more likely than not, she'd be inclined to watch Connor.

Travis gave Connor ample time to walk to the back of the store. The clerk was following Connor, who, as planned, was in the back of the store, behind an isle where he couldn't see the front. It was easy for Travis to walk over to the basket of fresh fruits, pick up the first piece of fruit his hands touched, grab gold paint, and walk out.

Connor, being a son of Hermes, stole three packs of gum from under the clerk's nose. To throw suspicion off of himself, he actually bought some Red Bull. He thanked the clerk with a wider smile than was necessary, and walked out.

"Dude, what took you so long?" Travis asked

"Bought some Red Bull and stole some gum for the occasion," Connor explained, blowing a bubble with five pieces of 5 Elixir and handing over the packs to his brother.

Travis laughed, "Cool, dude. So we'll be hyped up when we pull this off."

The mango, which was submerged in a large glass filled with gold paint, was deemed ready by Travis. He plucked it out as quickly as he could and set it down to dry on old newspapers.

"What do we do with the extra paint?" Connor asked.

Travis looked up, a gleam in his eye, "You know that gray stone owl in the Athena cabin?"

Connor laughed, "Dude, you're a genius."

_---_

Connor and Travis were waiting behind the Aphrodite cabin, waiting for the inhabitants of said cabin to leave for archery. The campers (or as everyone called them behind their backs, the princesses) filed out, fixing their hair. Many adjusted their clothing so they were pretty much flashing everyone who had the poor fortune of walking by them.

The two sons of Hermes suck into their cabin and left the apple in plain sight on a coffee table. After Connor carefully adjusted the apple so that the inscription could be read from the door, the two walked out and hid in the bushes to wait.

---

The two must've fallen asleep at some point in time, because they were riled by the loud noise of the Aphrodite campers. There was loud thumping, bangs, and crashes, but mostly loud shouts of "No, _mine!"_.

Gucci, Coach, and Hollister were flying out of the windows. Connor and Travis exchanged a grin, but kept quiet. For a little bit.

A male voice screeched "Ehmigawdz, my nail! You chipped it!"

That sent Connor and Travis over the edge. They rolled around in the bushes they were hiding in, laughing loudly and hysterically until their stomachs hurt and tears streamed down their cheeks.

Drawn by the noise, the disheveled children of Aphrodite stormed out to behind their cabin. The sight of them was hilarious; it looked like a large bird of prey was pecking on top of their heads, makeup was smeared, clothes were torn, and their furious expression was what made it all. When the two saw that they were looking at them with such an angry expression and processed what that must mean, they stopped laughing and got up.

---

It was unfortunate that the two couldn't outrun the entire Aphrodite cabin. The punishments inflicted upon Connor and Travis were totally unfair, but that didn't detract from one simple fact: that was the best prank ever. The two boys sat on the edge of a dock. Connor's feet were dipped in, but Travis had his whole head under and was vigorously scrubbing with his hands. The image sort of gave him the look of a duck, but Connor didn't say that.

"Is it off, dude?" Travis asked after surfacing for air.

Connor repressed a smile, "No."

Travis groaned and stuck his head under.

Connor put his index finger below the hem of his shirt and lifted it out. He left it there, sure that he was stretching the fabric, but when he removed it, it snapped back like rubber.

After a swear in Ancient Greek, he tried again with the same result.

---

Somewhere in the vast heavens, Eris laughed hysterically. She laughed until a tear came to her eye, and she brushed it away with the side of her hand, but it was a wasted effort; too many more followed. It was irresponsible to laugh; she was working the cashier under the job she did as a favor to Hermes. But her whole life was a long chain of irresponsibility, so who cared? She doubled over on the counter, her face pressed against the cool glass.

"...Eris?" Hermes's confused voice asked.

She pointed to the crystal ball on the display rack, which was repeating the whole scandal and began to laugh again.

"At... least... I... know... how... to... run... away!" Eris gasped between fits of laughter.

Hermes repressed a chuckle (these _were_ his sons, after all) and told Eris to get back to work.


End file.
